Untreated metal substrates can suffer from a variety of undesirable attributes that limit their usage in certain applications. For example, untreated metal substrates can have soft, easily damageable surfaces that are susceptible to oxidation and corrosion damage from the surrounding environment. Although it is known to use anodization processes to provide a protective layer, protective layers formed through an anodization process are relatively thin, fail to provide certain desirable attributes, and can be susceptible to chemical corrosion, heat cracking, and physical inflexibility. Consequently, it would be desirable to provide an electrochemical deposition process to provide metal substrates with effective protective coating layers that provide desirable benefits including, heat stability, physical flexibility, and superior heat transfer properties.